Temporary Workers

Washington — NIOSH, together with several partners, has developed a set of best practices to help employers protect temporary workers from injury and illness.

In the aftermath of devastating weather events, tens of thousands of storm recovery workers respond. A wide variety of potential hazards await.

Washington — NIOSH and the American Staffing Association have announced a multiyear partnership agreement to advance protections for temporary workers.

Olympia, WA — A new Washington state law will require construction and manufacturing employers who use temporary workers to identify and document workplace hazards, communicate those hazards to staffing agencies, and make sure workers are informed and properly trained.

Miami — Temporary construction workers face “unique barriers” to reporting injuries and near misses, according to researchers from the University of Miami and the NIOSH-funded Occupational Safety and Health Program at the Florida Department of Health.

Washington — Independent workers – defined as people who are likely self-employed and performing short-term jobs with “no guarantee of future work beyond the task” – accounted for 12.3% of worker fatalities in 2016 and 2017, according to Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries data released Aug. 9 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Safety remains a challenge for this often-vulnerable segment of the workforce, which may account for at least 15 percent of the nation’s on-the-job deaths.

Alexandria, VA — The American Staffing Association, through an alliance with OSHA, is set to host a webinar on Nov. 9 to discuss how to protect temporary workers from exposure to airborne contaminants.

Olympia, WA – Temporary workers file lost-workday claims about twice as often as permanent workers, according to a recent study from the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries.

The definition of the gig economy is far from clear-cut, but experts agree that the ranks are growing – raising questions about who is responsible for gig workers' on-the-job safety and health.